YouTube's Answer to Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Launches Wednesday
No cats allowed.
A few months ago Google announced a launch for a standalone service dedicated to the lucrative video game streaming market. Dubbed YouTube Gaming, the service has unexpectedly hinted at a launch tomorrow.
Google wanted to acquire Twitch last year but lost to Amazon, which acquired the video streaming platform for a reported $970 million.
YouTube Gaming, separate from the main YouTube service, will allow gamers to broadcast play sessions to thousands of viewers at a time, with about 25,000 dedicated landing pages for specific games. The service was expected to launch “summer 2015.” We’ve been seeing back-to-school commercials for awhile now, so it’s about time.
YouTube introduced 60 FPS live-streaming earlier this year to ramp up for the service’s launch. This year’s The International, the premiere Dota 2 tournament, was broadcast live on YouTube, among other channels. From my own experience, it was really smooth and seamless to watch the matches on YouTube. It had better be, though; Twitch’s fans are nothing if not obsessively dedicated to their time-suck of choice.
